OU Nursing, Pharmacy Students To Help Administer COVID-19 Vaccines

University of Oklahoma College of Nursing and Pharmacy students will be helping administer the COVID-19 vaccine to Oklahomans.

Students said this is a huge honor and hundreds of them will be helping with this mass vaccination process.

Faculty said they are anticipating that students will be a part of every phase of the state's rollout.

Program leaders said the process for this was in place with vaccinations already a part of their students' typical learning experience, even on their own campus. 

This year faculty has stressed flexibility and adapting, and they told News 9 that's exactly what they're doing now.

Currently they're planning to have opportunities available for all their students. 

"We actually have three campuses our Oklahoma City campus, our Lawton campus and our Tulsa campus. And we are making plans for students on all of those campuses to be a part of the vaccine administration," said OU College of Nursing faculty member Theresa Murphy.

Faculty members said this has been something students have been very interested in helping with. 

"When the schedule was placed and the email went out to all the students, the schedule was finished and full within 30 minutes or less," said Clinical Assistant Professor for OU College of Nursing Cindy Rieger.

Students, like Payton Hill, said this is a huge honor and he and his classmates are happy to help. 

"Its an honor to be able to participate in this way, especially as students," said Hill. "It's an interesting dynamic because you're not quite a nurse, yet you are not quite a pharmacist yet. So you are getting to watch a lot of your future colleagues on the frontlines doing a lot of these great things."

Hill said faculty have been really encouraging and have stressed students' ability to help even while they are still in school.